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Reid weighs in on budget woes

When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats are now banking on former Gov. Brian Schweitzer to enter the race in order to keep the seat in Democratic hands.

They face a similar situation in Michigan, where Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin’s retirement has the party looking to Rep. Gary Peters as its savior, and in South Dakota, where they hope former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin or U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson can mount a strong campaign in the absence of retiring Sen. Tim Johnson, who chairs the Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

And those aren’t the only ultra-senior senators leaving the chamber after 2014: Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa have also decided to call it a career.

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who at 89 is the last World War II veteran serving in the Senate, has also announced he will not run again.

For Democrats, the result is a wide swath of open-seat races where well-funded incumbents once stood. More often than not, they are counting on a single high-value recruit — or perhaps two — to stave off big Republican gains.

The party is not in a state of despair — in some states, including Montana, Democrats may draw candidates who are stronger than the incumbents they’re replacing. Two of these states — Michigan and New Jersey — clearly lean Democratic. But there’s little doubt that circumstances have raised the stakes for Democratic recruitment and early fundraising.

For Republicans, the huge number of open-seat races should represent a golden opportunity to seize control of the Senate after falling short in 2010 and 2012. In at least two cases — West Virginia and South Dakota — high-profile Republicans have already taken the field.

Yet across the landscape of open-seat races, relatively few strong Republican candidates have stepped up. A long list of Republicans have declined to run in both Iowa and Michigan, even as Democrats recruited Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley to replace Harkin and are close to landing Peters for Levin’s seat. Democrats also expect to coax either Herseth Sandlin or Johnson into the race in South Dakota.

Among the most competitive Senate races in the country, only one currently features strongly competitive candidates announced on both sides: the race in Louisiana, where GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy is challenging incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu.